Agency, inequality, and additionality: contested assemblages of agricultural carbon finance in western Kenya

ABSTRACT

Harnessing literatures on the political ecologies of agrarian change and carbon offsetting, this article presents a case study of a high-profile agricultural carbon finance initiative: the Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project. Despite project claims regarding ‘triple win' outcomes for livelihoods, sustainability, and climate mitigation, the annual mean carbon revenue reported in our sample is 0.33 US dollars per household and year. Contextualizing the (in)significance of these payments, we argue that emerging initiatives for leveraging agricultural carbon finance increasingly risk necessitating a denial of farmers’ endogenous agency, as well as their embeddedness in both regional and global political ecologies of agrarian change.

KEYWORDS:

• Political ecology
• climate smart agriculture
• additionality
• agency
• inequality

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on previous versions of this manuscript. Fieldwork for this study was undertaken with support from the Research Council of Norway FRIPRO-Toppforsk project ‘Greenmentality: A Political Ecology of the Green Economy in the Global South’. Research clearance was obtained from Kenya’s National Commission for Science, Technology, and Innovation (NACOSTI), which also provided helpful guidance on the conduct of fieldwork in Bungoma County. Most importantly, we would like to thank the citizens of Bungoma for sharing their important perspectives and experiences with us.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Norges Forskningsråd (Greenmentality: A Political Ecology of the Green Economy in the Global South).

Notes on contributors

Connor Joseph Cavanagh

Connor Joseph Cavanagh is Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of International Environment and Development Studies (Noragric), Norwegian University of Life Sciences. His research explores the political ecology of conservation and agrarian change, with a focus on land and resource politics, novel economic valuations of nonhuman ‘nature’, and evolving property regimes in eastern Africa. Recent articles have appeared in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Environment and Planning D, Antipode, and Geoforum.

Pål Olav Vedeld

Paul Olav Vedeld is Professor in the Department of International Environment and Development Studies (Noragric), Norwegian University of Life Sciences. His research focuses on sustainable livelihoods, environmental incomes, and conservation policy, as well as theoretical issues related to motivation, institutions, and interdisciplinarity in research and education. His research is mainly grounded empirically in eastern and southern Africa, but he has also worked in Nepal, India, and Norway.

Jon Geir Petursson

Jon Geir Petursson is Associate Professor (part time) of Environmental Governance in the Environment and Natural Resources Programme, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Iceland. He conducts research on social policy, institutions, livelihoods and natural resource governance with a geographic focus on East Africa. His work experience beyond academia is within government, consultancies and the NGO sector.

Anthony Kibet Chemarum

Anthony Kibet Chemarum is a development practitioner specializing in youth-led approaches to social change. He holds degrees from Kenyatta University (Environmental Studies and Community Development) and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (International Development Studies). Anthony hails from Pokot County, western Kenya, and has previously worked in Bungoma County for the Forest Action Network (FAN).